Dialing appliance



Nov. 29, 1932. E, wl s N 1,889,393

DIALING APPLIANCE:

Filed April 2. 1930 INVENTOR.-

Jan [:1]: E.Wi15cm ATTORNEYS.

ITHHII IIIIIIHIIIA Patented Nov. 255 1932 UNITED STATES JACOB E. WILSON, F YONG'ALLA, OREGON DIALING: APPLIANCE Application filed April 2,

The present invention relates to time pieces and more specfioally to a dialing appliance for use on clocks and watches to instantly indicate approximately the standard time for all time zones.

With the advance of radio, the public has been confronted with the problem of international time, making it either necessary or desirable to compute or convert distant Zone times into local time. The present day clocks and watches are not designed to give this information, and mathematical conversion of difierent time into local time is somewhat q difficult for the laymen.

It 18 therefore the primary ohyect of the present invention to provide a time piece which will instantly indicate time for distant zones as quickly and easily as the present day time piece and without requiring the use 23 of charts or adjustment of each locality or time zone A further object of the invention is to provide an improved time piece which will re-= quire no changing or adjustment when transported from one time Zone to another and. thereby permitting travelers to always have the correct time in the particular time zone in which they are traveling.

A further object resides in the provision of a device of this character which will give the correct time regardless as to how many times the Zones are crossed.

A further object resides in the provision of a device of this character which is of extremely simple construction and operation and including day and night positions relative to geographical localities.

@ther objects and advantages of the inven- 4o tion will be apparent during the courseof the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification and in which drawing:

Figure l is a face plan view of the improved time piece.

Figure 2 is a side elevation showing a per-- tion of the dials in section.

Figure 3' is a transverse section thru a slightly modified form of dialing appliance.

1930. Serial No. 441,113.,

Figure 4 is a section through a still further modified form of the invention.

In the drawing, and wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts thruout the several views, the device embodies a time dial A, a location dial B, and unit divider means C for the time dial A.

Referring particularly to Figures 1 and 2. the time or numeral dial A is in the form of a disc axially mounted upon one end of a tu- 6O bular shaft 5 rotated by a suitable clock or watch mechanism of any preferred type operating to impart one complete cycle of rotation to the dial in each period of twenty-four hours The dial A is provided on its face side and adjacent its periphery with an annular time scale or ring 6 divided by twenty-four radial hour indicating lines 7 into twentyfour units of fifteen degrees each. Each unit of fifteen degrees represents one hour of time so that the twenty-four units will represent the twenty-four hours of a day and likewise the twenty-four time zones. The hour in dicating lines 7 are numbered from 1 to 12 in a counter clockwise direction with diametrically aligning lines bearing like hour numbers. Each hour unit is evenly divided into twelve parts, each representing five minutes of time, and these hour dividing lines may vary in length as shown for more clear- 9 ly indicating the fifteen, thirty and forty-five minute periods past the hour.

lhe time scale is divided on the indicating lines bearing the hour indication numerals 66 into two sections 8 and 10 representing day and night positions respectively, the twelve hours on the white section representing twelve hours of day time and the twelve hours on the black section 10 representing twelve hours of night time. Thus the two sections 8 and 10 give day and night positions relative to geographical localities.

The location or indicator dial B is arranged co-axially over the face of the dial A and is fixed against rotation upon one end of a stationary tubular shaft 11 extended thru the shaft 5 and dial. A. This stationary dial B is of less diameter than that of the dial A and has its circumferential edge overlying the inner end of the division lines of the annular 7 west of each other upon the dial in radial alignment with the pointers 12. It will here be noted that the pointers 12 are 'not all spaced apart about the location dial, and the reason for this will be subsequently brought out. w

The time dial A is to be rotated in a clockwise direction whereby the numbered hour indicating graduations 7 will be progressively moved beneath the pointers 12. While the arrangement of the named localities 14 may be varied for disposing either of the names in an uppermost position, in the example shown in Figure 1, London has been used as the location of the dialing appliance with the other localities in their true geographical positions east or west of London.

Delineated upon the face of the dial B is a radially extending line 15 representing the 180 meridian from Greenwich and known asthe international date line. This line has been shown 180 from London and between Samoa and New Caledonia.

Referring now to the unit divider means C, this means co-acts with the time scale 6 to allow for obtaining accurate time to within fractions of a minute depending upon the divisions on the divider dial arranged Y axially upon the face of the stationary dial B.

The dial 20 may be delineated in any desired manner upon the face of the dial B and is divided into five equal parts numbered from 1 to 5 and each representing one minute of time. These minute divisions may each be divided into sixty units if so desired, each unit representing one second of time. In the examp e illustrated, the minute divisions have each been divided into fifteen units for the purpose of clearness, and in which case each unit will of course represent four seconds of time. Fixed to the end of a shaft 22 rotatably extended thru the stationary tubular' shaft 11, and which shaft 22 projects slightly thru the dial B, is a pointer or hand a 24 for movement over the divider dial 20 for indicating minutes and fractions thereof.

This indicatin pointer or hand 24 is rotated in a clockwise direction by the shaft 22 at a s eed whereby the pointer will have one complete revolution in each period of five minutes. The shaft 22 may be rotated by a suitable watch or clock work mechanism 0 rating the shaft 5 for rotating'the dial A.

e pointer 24 will rotatefor one complete ridian of the zone.

ure 3, the time or numeral dial A, rotated by the tubular shaft 5, is axially recessed at its face side as at 25, with the stationary location dial B, carried by the fixed tubular shaft 11', fitted in the recesses 25 with the face of the dial B flush with the face of the dial A. The unit divider means is similar to that shown in Figures 1 and 2, the pointer 24 being mounted upon the rotating shaft 22 which is extended thru the tubular shaft 11'. The dial A is of course provided with the annulartime scale'as shown in Figure 1, and the dial B. is provided with indicia as shown in Figure 1. In the modified arrangement shown in Figure '4, the unit divider means has been eliminated and the time or numeral dial A" aflixed to a tubularshaft thru which a shaft 32 extends and supports the location dial B" which has been shown of conical shape. With this form of the invention,

either one of the dials A or B" may be the rotating dial while the other is held stationar Iteferring particularly to Figure 1, thespecific arrangement of the pointers 12 is to provide for those localities using semi-hour standard time and slight variations from standard time. Under the zone system,'the same time is adopted over the whole of the region of the earth comprised between two meridians of longitude corresponding to a longitude difference of fifteen degrees, the time corresponding to that of the central me- At the boundaries of the zone, the time changes abruptly by one hour. The first zone is comprised between longitudes 7 E. and 7 W. of Greenwich and thruout it Greenwich time is used. In successive zones east of Greenwich, the times are one, two, threehours fast of Greenwich, and in the zones west of Greenwich the times are one, two, three,hours slow of Greenwich. Thus the same time is used over a.

wide area, but this time never differs more than thirty minutes from local time. Occasionally, when simplification results, the zone boundaries deviate slightly from the meridians as on the seaboard of a country where only a small area lies in one zone and it is convenient to bend the boundary of the It will be noted from Figure 1 five minutes between Hawaii and Samoa. The specific dialing arrangements shown will take care of this difference in time between localities using semi-hour standard time and slight variations. While, to be exact, there is fifty-three minutes difference between Hawaii and Samoa, the smallest unit upon the time scale 6 is five minutes and therefore the use of the expression a dialing appliance for approximately indicating the standard time for the localities indicated on the dial B.

Thus it will be observed that a novel device of this character has been disclosed permitting standard time of different zones to be instantly obtained and also time for those localities which use the semi-hour time and slight variations. It will also be apparent that with the novel arrangement shown that the localities are all exposed to view at all times and that no chart or calculation is required for determining the local time of any of the localities indicated upon the dial B.

Changesv in detail may be made to the forms of invention herein shown and described, without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the following claim.

I claim:

In a time piece of the class described, a rear most dial having a round depression in its face side and a time scale delineated on the dial about the periphery of the depression and divided by hour indication lines into twenty-four units each indicating one hour of time, means for rotating the dial, a front most dial arranged in the depression and held against rotation, said front most dialbeing provided with pointers for c0- acting with the time scale and a location marking for each pointer, a divider dia] delineated upon the face of the front most dial, and a rotatable hand for movement over the divider dial.

JACOB E. WILSON. 

